My Bucket Runneth Over
by NatesMama
Summary: Booth and Brennan discuss bucket lists. A short little OS in response to a fan fic challenge at Bonesology.


A/N: Just something short and sweet, as a response to the Bonesology Fan Fiction challenge for the month of August 2011. (Write a one-shot in which any two characters compare 'bucket lists'.)

* * *

><p><span>My Bucket Runneth Over<span>

"Come on, Bones…are you telling me that you don't even know what a bucket list is?" Booth shook his head as he tossed the house keys into the bowl next to the door, while simultaneously holding said door for Brennan as she carried the baby and diaper bag into the house.

"Booth, you know I don't lie." She passed the carrier's handle to him and shrugged off her jacket. "I couldn't even begin to guess what a 'bucket list' might entail." Divested of her outer garments, she reached again for her daughter. "Here, let me feed her, she's been rooting around for dinner."

Booth dutifully handed a squawking Quinn to her mother. "I hate when you call it 'rooting', Bones." He moved to secure his gun in the safe and put the rest of their gear away as Brennan sat in the recliner and opened her blouse.

"But that is what she is doing…rooting. There is no negative connotation to the word that I am aware of." She slid the clasp of her nursing bra open and turned Quinn towards her breast, relaxing back once the baby began eating eagerly.

Booth watched the two of them from the entryway, a small smile on his face. "I know, it just makes her sound like a pig."

Staring at her child's enthusiastic response to her food, Brennan chuckled. "Well, considering the fact that she has inherited her father's love of eating, that characterization might be entirely apropos."

"Ha, ha, ha Dr. Brennan." He crossed to the ottoman in front of the chair where his girls were sitting and sank down gratefully. "You're hilarious."

"I know, I am quite amusing."

"So you've said." Booth reached out and absently rubbed her knee. "But anyway…where were we? Oh yeah, bucket lists."

"What is it?" She turned Quinn around to her shoulder and patted her bottom, waiting for a burp. "I heard you and Angela talking about it earlier."

"Yeah. A bucket list is a list of experiences, goals, or trips that you want to accomplish before you die."

Brennan nodded, moving the baby to her other breast. "Ah. That makes sense. 'Kicking the bucket' is a common idiom for death, ergo a bucket list…very clever."

"I thought so." Booth stood again and removed his tie, slinging it over the top of the sofa. "I've always wanted to sit down and make my own list, but I just never got around to it."

Brennan smiled. "So…making a bucket list would be on your bucket list?"

Laughing, Booth headed for the kitchen to get them both a drink. "Yeah, you could say that." He grabbed two bottles of water and returned to the living room. "But there's a lot more I'd like to do, too."

Intrigued, Brennan leaned forward a bit. "Like what?"

"Well…I can cross off a few, thanks to you." He bussed the top of her head, and then settled on the sofa next to the chair. "Having another baby, going to Fiji…"

"A baby-moon was a great idea, we owe Angela for that one."

"Definitely." Booth was lost in the memories of warm sandy beaches and her gently rounded abdomen in a bikini for a moment. With a grin and a shake of his head, he continued. "Having sex in your office, that was a big one."

"Not 'almost getting caught having sex in my office'?"

Booth shuddered. "It's a good thing Cam wears loud heels and you have a door lock. That would have been awkward."

"To say the least." Brennan tipped a sleeping Quinn over her shoulder again and rubbed her back. "What else?"

"Hmm. Well, I'd love to go to Rome. Maybe Italy. Medjugorje. There's a lot of places I'd like to travel."

"What about experiences? Surely your bucket list would include more than religious pilgrimages."

"Yeah…" Booth was momentarily distracted by his daughter's soft, sleepy coos. He stood and gently plucked Quinn from her mother's shoulder, allowing Brennan to refasten her bra, much to his slightly lecherous chagrin. Settling back down with the baby on his chest, he continued. "I've always wanted to scuba dive at the Blue Hole in Belize."

"Really?" Brennan, intrigued, moved to sit next to him, sitting on one leg as she angled her body to face him. "I've been there, it's spectacular. Maybe someday we could go together."

"I'd like that." Leaning his head back on the sofa, Booth frowned slightly. "I wouldn't mind taking Pops to England to find where our ancestors lived. He would love that."

"He would." Brennan sighed and turned to lean against Booth's side, stroking Quinn's tiny hand where it rested on her father's bicep. "All this talk of bucket lists is a little morbid for me, I'm finding."

Booth raised an eyebrow. "You find this morbid? That's a switch."

"I realize it seems odd, it's just…I find I don't need a list to remind me of what I could miss in my life if I were to die." She rested her head on his shoulder, eyes closed. "I am very aware of what is important now."

Unexpected tears pricked his eyes as Booth looked down at the top of Brennan's head where it rested against him. "Yeah?"

"Yes." Holding her left hand out and admiring the elegant solitaire on the third finger, she nodded. "There is nothing else I want more than this, right here. The rest is ephemera."

He leaned down and kissed her softly, letting her nuzzle into his neck. "As usual, you're right, Bones." They both looked tenderly at the sleeping child in his arms. "Nope, can't argue with that at all."


End file.
